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attending your fine ivory tower of higher learning I hope to get as far away from my hometown as possible.”
    “You need to put stuff like, ‘Through athletics I have learned the importance of preparation and effort, and I hope to transfer these skills to the world of academics and win the most important race: life.’”
    I looked over at her with my mouth open. I had no idea Joann was capable of such huge volumes of BS. You think you know people.
    “That was so good. Scary good. Hang on, I want to write that down before I forget.” I started typing feverishly on the computer.
    “With everything going on, I bet you won’t be the only one thinking about going away to school now.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “The poisonings?” Joann sat there looking at me, as if she suspected I had a head injury. “Didn’t you hear? They got Kelly, too.”
    Joann looked out the window, as if she expected someone to be sneaking up on her from behind. I tried not to roll my eyes.
    “Now Kelly is sick?”
    “Uh-huh. It happened at the Spirit Squad! meeting after school. They were making a big get-well poster for Darci and apparently, all of a sudden, she told people she was feeling funny, lightheaded, and then wham , she fell over.” Joann snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Cut down in her prime.”
    “I bet Darci is not too happy to share the spotlight even more.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Don’t you find it the tiniest bit odd that Darci sees Kimberly getting all this attention and then suddenly she has the same problem?”
    “Darci and Kimberly are best friends. It isn’t like they have some big competition.”
    I shrugged and looked back at the computer screen.
    “No matter what you think of Darci, someone slipped something to Kimberly. Something happened, and someone made it happen. The hospital is running all kinds of tests on the three of them to see if they can figure out any common factors.”
    “There were no drugs in Darci’s system. Zero. I’m willing to bet there wasn’t anything in Kelly’s system either. You want to know the common factor? The desire for attention.”
    “You can’t think they would fake something this serious.”
    “They’re some of the most annoying girls at school, but honestly, who would actually poison them?”
    “My mom said she saw the Evers family down at the Stop and Shop, and they think it might be terrorists.”
    “Terrorists? Please tell me you’re joking.”
    Joann’s face was serious. No joke. I turned off the computer.
    “Why would terrorists poison three girls in Middle of Nowhere, Indiana?”
    “Not middle of nowhere. America’s heartland.” Joann paused to let that sink in. “Plus, all the girls go to a Christian school. Reverend Evers told my mom by attacking here they create a culture of fear, which is exactly what they do. Terrorize.”
    “This is Wheaton. If you pierce your ears, you can’t walk a block without at least four people noticing and calling your parents to see if they know. Can you actually imagine that some terrorist is going to slink into town with a bag of drugs and not be noticed?”
    “But that’s the thing. Mrs. Homer told the police that she saw a car with suspicious people on Friday night. They were driving without their headlights, and she thinks she heard that weird Middle Eastern music coming from the car.”
    “Mrs. Homer is, like, a hundred and ten years old. She can’t recognize her own family members if they’re standing right in front of her, screaming their names. She makes Helen Keller look like an eagle eye. This is the person we’re trusting to spot Osama?”
    “She didn’t say she saw their faces. Just that they were, you know, brown.”
    “Brown? Well then, they must be guilty of something. Imagine that, being brown. You think they would have known they would stick out here in the whitest town in America. Although I suppose since they’re brown, we shouldn’t expect them to be too